A bevy of giggles, goofs and good times will be had by comedy fans at the end of this month, when the 12th annual Icebreakers Comedy Festival returns to Niagara-on-the-Lake from Jan. 29 to 31.

The festival will present four shows: “An Evening with Steve Patterson” at Oast House Brewers on Jan. 29; “Corks Comedy Hour” at Corks Wine Bar and Eatery on Jan. 30; “The Meltdown” at Corks Wine Bar and Eatery on Jan. 30; and “The CBC Laugh Out Loud Gala” at the Royal Cambridge on Jan. 31.

Executive producer and comedian Jeff Paul, a NOTL native, said he expects almost 500 people to attend this year. The festival began as entertainment tied to the town’s ice wine celebrations and now become “its own thing.”

Paul will host “The Meltdown,” which he described as one of the festival’s dirtier shows. All performances are 18-plus, with 19-plus required for alcohol service.

“We’re gearing towards a sell out,” he said.

Each show features comedians with national profiles. Steve Patterson, host of CBC’s “The Debaters,” headlines the Jan. 29 show. The program pits two stand-up comics against each other on often lighthearted topics such as “Is curling a sport?” or “Should everyone take up pottery?”

This marks Patterson’s first appearance at Icebreakers. He said he was eager to visit NOTL, a town where The Debaters has never taped.

“This is me testing the grounds I guess,” he said.

Longtime comedian Elvira Kurt will open for Patterson. He described her as one of the most experienced performers at the festival and praised her ability to read a room and set the tone.

Patterson said the show requires an adjustment, shifting from the collaborative format of “The Debaters” to performing 50 minutes to an hour of stand-up solo.

“I’ve been doing some shows in Ottawa to kind of get ready for this,” he said. “I have to remember that I have to keep talking because I don’t then there’s no one else to fill that space.”

“The CBC Laugh Out Loud Gala” will be hosted by Ali Hassan, who also hosts CBC’s Laugh Out Loud podcast, which highlights comedians from across the country.

Hassan said the gala is marking its 10th year and that NOTL has become a regular stop.

“This is one of the few cities where we’ve just gone back every year,” he said. “They’re just so great to work with … the audiences in NOTL are just very special.”

The gala lineup includes Martha Chaves, who will close the show. Chaves is originally from Nicaragua and went to Montreal as a young woman. Her family in Guatemala.

She began performing stand-up at 25 and now teaches comedy at Humber College. Her material often draws on everyday observations and her experiences as a naturalized Canadian.

“We call her the grand dame of Canadian comedy,” Hassan said.

Chaves returns to the festival for a second year. She said she enjoys performing in NOTL and plans to include Niagara Falls jokes, though she was unsure how specific her material would be to the town.

“I usually … write about the town where I go,” she said.

Patterson said stand-up comedy can be unforgiving. When a comic is “bombing,” or failing to get laughs, it becomes immediately obvious.

If silence can heighten the tension, open disapproval can either inflame it or give a comedian an opportunity to recover. Both Patterson and Chaves said they are rarely heckled, with Patterson sometimes getting “freckled,” or friendly heckled.

Chaves recalled one incident in which an off-duty police officer yelled “Go back to your country,” prompting her to respond, “A round of applause for Toronto’s finest,” which won over the crowd.

The comedians said politics will largely stay out of their acts.

“To talk about what’s going on in the news is an exercise in futility,” Chaves said, citing how quickly events change.

She added that she is concerned about the future of Canada and the world.

“I’m more worried about Canada at the moment, what’s going to happen to us,” she said.

Festival details and tickets are available at www.icebreakerscomedy.com.

daniel@niagaranow.com